Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth (Pantheon Graphic Novels)

This first book from Chicago author Chris Ware is a pleasantly decorated view at a lonely and emotionally impaired everyman Jimmy Corrigan The Smartest Kid on Earth who is provided at age 36 the opportunity to meet his father for the first time An improvisatory romance which gingerly deports itself between 1890 s Chicago and 1980 s small town Michigan the reader is helped along by thousands of colored illustrations and diagrams which when read rapidly in sequence provide a convincing illusion of life and movement The bulk of the work is supported by fold out instructions an index paper cut outs and a brief apology all of which concrete to form a rich portrait of a man stunted by a paralyzing fear of being disliked From the Hardcover edition